Friday 28 June 2013

Angola enters in a new development phase

After a first very effective development phase right after the armed conflict that happened in the country, Angola faced a period of deceleration induced by the international financial crisis. It's entering now in a new development phase, which will be translated into the increase of investment in Real Estate sector for the next years.


The market of Angola is now making its path to balance the offer and the demand, namely in the sectors of Housing, Hospitality, Industry and Retail. Only in the Office sector it's verifiable a scenario in which the offer is superior to the demand, that explains the recent stabilisation of the practised renting prices.

The Housing sector represents a very attractive investment opportunity, due to the lack of solutions for the rising middle class. For instance, in the city of Luanda the majority of Real Estate investments that were made were mainly focused to the middle-high class, leaving the solutions for a middle budget client for a second development phase, which is about to happen. These investment opportunities are valid to several other regions of the country beyond the capital Luanda, such as Benguela and Lobito. 

The Hospitality sector brings also a wide set of opportunities, both in the business traveling area (with predominance in Luanda) and in the tourism area (highlighting Benguela due to its 200 km length of coastline). The local government is betting in the area of tourism, to attract international tourists and to encourage also domestic tourism, leveraging the refered rising of middle class.

The government sees also the Industry as a sector to be target of very effective investments. To help creating better investment conditions, the government compromised with the improvement of accessibilities and specific infra-structures and with the application of facilitation measures for the foreign investment.

The Retail business, by its turn, is still operated in a very traditional way through local family stores. This offer doesn't meet with the demands of both middle and middle-high classes for more modern retail spaces that can concentrate a set of international stores. In this way, a good part of Real Estate investments will surely be made in the construction of new commercial infra-structures.

For all this reasons, Angola is a very attractive market to all companies that provide both products and services focused to the areas of Construction and Real Estate. On this second development phase, Angola's market learned to value a more professionalised kind of supplier, taking into account the relation between price and quality and the provided garantees.

- adapted from Diário Imobiliário

Luanda
Benguela

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Projects Wanted - House on the Cliff, by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos

 

House on the Cliff is the second project presented in "Projects Wanted" section, sent to our blog by its authors - the Spanish Architecture office Fran Silvestre Arquitectos, from the city of Valencia.

We are open to receive projects from all around the world, regardless of their dimension or typology. Please send us high quality photos (indicating their authors), drawings and descriptive texts in English to our Marketing e-mail - david.cardoso@dimscale.com. It will be our pleasure to help spreading new Architecture concepts and ideas.





HOUSE ON THE CLIFF

CALPE, ALICANTE

 

We like the virtue of architecture which makes possible constructing a house on air, walking on water...
An abrupt plot of land overlooking the sea, where what is best is to do nothing. It invites to stay.
A piece that respects the land's natural contour is set in it.
Above, a shadow, the house itself, looking calmly at the Mediterranean.
Under the sun, the swimming-pool brings us closer to the sea, it becomes a quiet cove.
In the inflection point, the stairway proposes a evocative path, a garden in the basement...


Due to the steepness of the plot and the desire to contain the house in just one level, a three-dimensional structure of reinforced concrete slabs and screens adapting to the plot's topography was chosen, thus minimizing the earthwork. This monolithic, stone-anchored structure generates a horizontal platform from the accessing level, where the house itself is located. The swimming-pool is placed on a lower level, on an already flat area of the site. The concrete structure is insulated from the outside and then covered by a flexible and smooth white lime stucco. The rest of materials, walls, pavements, the gravel on the roof... all maintain the same colour, respecting the traditional architecture of the area, emphasizing it and simultaneously underlining the unity of the house.

- Fran Silvestre Arquitectos










Fran Silvestre Arquitectos will receive the RED DOT AWARD for this project, in the category of Architecture and Urban Design. The ceremony will on July 1st, in Essen, Germany. Congratulations and many thanks to have sharing this project with us!

Photos: Diego Opazo
 


PROJECTS WANTED is a DIMSCALE's initiative to communicate new Architecture from all around the world.
Send us your projects to david.cardoso@dimscale.com.